Ritual Abuse

"Every day around the world and even here in the United States, children are sold into virtual slavery or trafficked for the worst forms of sexual abuse."  President, Bill Clinton - 2000

Ritual abuse is an extreme sadistic form of abuse of children and non-consenting adults. It is methodical, systematic sexual, physical, emotional and spiritual abuse, which often includes mind control, torture, and highly illegal and immoral activities such as murder, child pornography and prostitution. The abuse is justified by a religious or political ideology

Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents:

1. The Awareness Center's Brochure  

2. Articles

   • Witchcraft and Judaism
   • Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse
   • Fact Sheet: Ritual Abuse
   • McMartin Preschool Revisited
     • Archaeological Investigations of the McMartin Preschool Site, Manhattan Beach, California
   • Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse" (The Greenbaum Speech)  (06/25/1992)
     • A Brief Introduction to the Authentic Kabbalah

3. Audio Tapes

   • Dreamweavers:  Child Abuse and Advocacy  (04/11/1997) - Sponsored by Believe the Children, International Council on Cultism and Ritual Trauma, Mothers Against Sexual Abuse (MASA), Survivors and Victims Empowered (SAVE).

   • The Tapestry of Ritual Child Abuse: Past, Present and Future  (06/16/1995) - Recordings from The Tapestry of Ritual Child Abuse: Past, Present and Future, which was sponsored by Believe the Children.

   • Ritual Child Abuse: Disclosures in the '80s, Backlash in the 90's  (06/10/1994) - Recordings from Ritual Child Abuse: Disclosures in the '80s, Backlash in the 90's, which was sponsored by Believe the Children.

   • Heartbreak Through Healing: Facing the Reality of Sexual and Ritual Abuse of Children  (04/02/1993) - Recordings from From Heartbreak Through Healing: Facing the Reality of Sexual and Ritual Abuse of Children, which was sponsored by Believe the Children.

4. Clinical Pages

   • Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing

6. Legal/Law Enforcement/Goverment

   • Attorneys Experienced Working with Survivors of Sexual Violence
   • Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Testifying at Legislative Hearings
   • Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse
   • Illinois Public Act #87-1167 - Ritualized Abuse of a Child - Exclusions, Penalties, Definition
   • Illinois Public Act 90-0088 - Ritualized Abuse of a Child, Ritual Mutilation
   • Idaho Statutes: Ritualized Abuse of a Child - Exclusions, Penalties, Definition
   • Severe Animal Cruelty in Ohio Emphasizes Importance Of Felony Animal Cruelty Laws
   • Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse
   • Ritualized Abuse of a Child - Exclusions - Penalties - Definition
   • Satanism and Ritual Abuse Archive

7. Survivor Organizations and Resources

   • "Reclaiming Our Potential: Victory Strategies for Survivors" by Aubrieta V. Hope (Audio Tape)
   • "Against All Odds: Recognizing the Exceptional Skills of Survivors" by Aubrieta V. Hope (Audio Tape)
   • Persons Against Ritual Abuse - Torture (RAT ) and Other Acts of Non-Political Torture.
   • Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing
   • A Recovery Bill of Rights for Trauma Survivors  (1995) by Thomas V. Maguire, Ph.D.
   • ACHES-MC (Advocacy Committee for Human Experimentation Survivors - Mind Control)
   • Survivorship
   • S.M.A.R.T - Ritual Abuse Newsletter
   • Many Voices - Hope For People Recovering From Trauma and Dissociation
   • MASA - Mothers Against Sexual Abuase
   • The Spiritual Damages of Ritual Abuse or "How Can I Live with Myself and My Past?"

8. Related Topices

   • Survivors of Spiritual Abuse
   • Cults, Missionaries and Sexual Victimization
   • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
   • Dissociative Disorders
   • Sexual Violence and Suicide: Information and Prevention
   • Definition of Terms relating to Sexual Victimization

by Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky

http://www.aish.com/spirituality/philosophy/Witchcraft_and_Judaism.asp

Between God and the world of nature lies a bridge called the "occult". Crossing it is fraught with danger and a slip-up means falling into the abyss of idolatry.

Most children are thrilled by stories of witches and devils, Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. In an otherwise dry and rational world, those mysterious forces add an element of fun and excitement and stir the imagination. They allow a youngster to feel that there is a way to beat a merciless and insensitive system.

Born poor through no fault of your own? No problem -- a wonderful fairy will come to your doorstep and give you the fortune you so longed for. A bully is tormenting you mercilessly? A spell will be cast and he will become a squirrel for the rest of his life.

The Blair Witch Project films give teenagers a momentary shot of excitement and dread, and an ominous whiff that maybe there really is something lurking out there.

THREE GENERAL APPROACHES

When a person matures, three general approaches towards the occult and other outside forces begin to emerge.

There are the serious, rational mindsets who laugh it all off. For them the world is rational, quantifiable and anything else is utter rubbish.

There is a second group of people, who tend to be spiritual, artistic, poetic, etc. They sense the world has a spiritual dimension to it, and that there are all sorts of forces and mysteries that reason can't comprehend. Theirs is a world of tea-leaf readings, tarot cards, crystal balls and psychic predictions.

Then there are those very deeply religious people, whose worldview is that of a great battle between the two forces in the world -- good and evil. The captain of the good team is God, assisted by a host of angels, saints, martyrs, etc. The captain of the bad team is the devil, assisted by demons, evil spirits and politicians. Their world is particularly threatened by the likes of Harry Potter books, due to a large degree to the severity with which witchcraft is dealt with in the Bible.

NOT JEWISH

None of these three general approaches are in keeping with Judaism. What is the Torah perspective regarding witchcraft?

The Torah takes a very negative attitude towards witchcraft in its various formats, such as:

"A sorcerer shall not be allowed to live." (Exodus 22:17)

"For you are coming into a land that God is granting to you; do not learn the ways of the abominations of the native people. There shall not be found amongst you ... a sorcerer, soothsayer or engager of witchcraft ... or one who calls up the dead. For it is an abomination before God, and it is on account of these abominations that God is giving you their land." (Deut. 18:9-12)

But why? What is the problem with it?

The so-called "devil vs. God" approach is an anathema to Judaism because of the whiff of dualism inherent in it. God is One, and only One. He acts in many different ways, but there are no "two" armies in the full sense of the word.

Judaism does speak of the "Satan/devil," but it sees Satan as an agent of God, testing the sincerity of man's deeds, the strength of his convictions, and the stamina of his moral fiber. Although this so-called devil seems to entice man to do wrong, he is not inherently an evil being. Rather, he is conducting a "sting" operation; overtly enticing to bad, but in reality working for God. A cursory reading of the beginning of Job conveys that message: God sends out Satan to test Job's righteousness.

Just as a dentist or doctor tests the firmness of a bone or flesh by probing it, just as the army tests the integrity and trustworthiness of its intelligence agents by tempting them, so too does God test man. A test reveals the inner worthiness of a person's deeds, demonstrating what they are really made of.

So, if magic and occult do exist, why are they so evil?

GOOD MAGIC, BAD MAGIC

We also find mention of many types of "good magic" in the Talmudic sources, such as blessings, amulets etc. How do we distinguish between the two types of spiritual forces?

The perspective most widely used is that of the Nachmanides, the great 12th century thinker. We will try to adapt and explain his perspective.

Although God was the sole creator of the universe, He created an autonomous system of "nature" that serves as an intermediate layer between God and man.

The system of nature is self-contained and has its laws and its causes and effects. Being that one can use this system without immediate recourse to God, it allows for a sort of atheism. It is easy to think that the system runs on its own, independent from God. Gravity, inertia, electro-magnetism etc. all work whether the person is a sinner or a saint. A person who buys into the phenomena of nature, without bothering to ask himself about their cause, nor being sensitive to God's manipulation of natural events, is misled by the system into disbelief in God.

Between God and this world of nature lies another bridge, which we shall call the "occult" or the quasi-spiritual. It has the ability to change and bend the rules of nature, through miracles, magic, etc. But this quasi-spiritual world, although it is more elevated than nature per se, is still not the Divine. It has its rules and laws of operation, and is perhaps more powerful than the physical world, but certainly not omnipotent.

Are we to make use of this world in the way which we are bidden to make use of the physical world?

Nachmanides says that generally speaking God does not desire that we make use of this world. God had intended for us to come to awareness of Him within the natural world, and through its phenomena. Someone who subverts the system of nature, by constantly using the supernatural world, is going against the will of God.

In those instances where holy people have used forces above nature, they've always emphasized the fact that the miracles thus generated only demonstrated God's omnipotence to override natural phenomena. This is similar to (though certainly not the same as) the miracles that God performed for Israel in Egypt with the aim of establishing certain Divine truths. When a righteous person occasionally uses Divine intervention, it bolsters those great truths.

DANGER OF WRONG-DOING

It is at this point that the danger of real wrongdoing exists. A person who has realized that the laws of nature onto themselves are insufficient to explain the world, has tapped into this more spiritual world and come upon a melange of all sorts of "spiritual beings." If he understands they are agents of God, this becomes a true spiritual experience. But if he mistakenly understands them to be independent of God, then he engages in idol-worship! These forces then become a source for evil when they are viewed as an alternative power to God.

Perhaps the best illustration for this dual approach is inherent in the story of the "copper snake":

And the people spoke ill of God and Moses ... and God sent against them the burning serpents and they bit the people, and many people died ... and God told Moses: "Shape a snake [out of copper] and place it on a stick, and whoever was bitten will look at it and live." Moses then made a snake of copper and put it on a stick, and if a person was bitten by a snake, he would look at the copper snake and live. (Numbers 21:4-9)

The Mishna (Rosh Hashana 29a) puts this into perspective:

Did the serpent heal or kill? Rather, when Israel looked up heavenward, and dedicated their hearts to their Heavenly Father [they would be healed], and when not, they would waste away.

Here we have both facets of the supernatural: At first, the miraculous nature of the snake caused people to realize that the plague was God's doing, and they worked on bettering themselves. In this vein it was a positive spiritual experience.

But later things disintegrated and instead of the snake being a means to recognizing God, it became a focal point in itself, i.e. the wonderful healing snake -- separate from God's power. That is idolatry. For this reason, many hundreds of years later, King Hezekiah had this copper snake destroyed because people turned it into an idol!

UNDERSTANDING IDOL WORSHIP

Idol worship is the perception that there are many forces with various powers over mankind and perhaps even over God. The idolater thinks that he can use these "powers" against God if he only knew how to wrest them away from God.

It's as if God's power were vested in a gun He holds in His hand. The idolater thinks that if could only wrest the gun from God, then he'd wield that power. He equates the spells of witchcraft with the ability to overpower God.

The prime example of this thinking is the evil prophet Bilaam, who is called a sorcerer by the Torah. He was a person very knowledgeable in this area of the universe. He kept scheming to use the world of magic against God. He thought he understood the mind of God and that with enough powerful manipulation, he would be able to outfox Him!

In a sense, this is the worst form of idolatry possible. On the one hand, the person is onto something "real." It is not a weird looking rock that a primitive mind has fantasized into a god. Rather, it is a power that works. Yet, it is utterly false, because nothing is independent of God.

For us, the litmus test of "spirituality" is morality. Any form of "spirituality" that makes no moral demands on a human being, that does not seek to bring him closer to God, or bring out the Divine potential of man, is bogus or evil spirituality.

If a person practices "occult rites" and the content thereof is a mumble of strange words, bizarre costumes, or strange rites, it is either bogus or evil. It usually is bogus, but in those cases that he has tapped into these powers, it is evil for he has divorced it from God.

The great rabbis who performed supernatural acts, were using them to bring home a message about God. They enjoined people to recognize the Creator, develop their character, be kind to others, be honest and faithful, reign in their drives, etc. Understood in the larger context of God, Torah and morality, these unusual miracles were indeed Divine revelations.

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American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children - December, 1996

APSAC published this Fact Sheet on Ritual Abuse as a service to members and the general public in December, 1996.

"Ritual abuse" is one of the most-talked-about, rarest, and least-understood forms of alleged child maltreatment. Experts disagree about whether or not "ritual abuse" exists, the range of situations to include in the category, and the extent and significance of these situations. Some argue that the term "ritual abuse" should be abandoned because it confuses more than it clarifies. Many more questions than answers exist about this highly controversial topic.

WHAT IS "RITUAL ABUSE"?

Most allegations of what comes to be called "ritual abuse" involve one or more of the following elements: terrorizing acts (e.g., threats to kill parents, pets, or loved ones if the abuse is disclosed); acts involving supernatural symbolism or ritual (e.g., the use of masks or robes, the use of crosses or pentagrams); acts involving real or simulated killing of animals and sometimes human infants (these acts can serve both ritual and terrorizing ends); acts involving real or simulated ingestion of urine, feces, blood, and "magic potions" which might include mind-altering substances; severe sexual abuse, often including penetration with objects.

Experts have proposed that allegations often classified as "ritual abuse" might reflect three very different situations (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988):

Cult-based ritual abuse. The hallmark of this type of abuse is an elaborated spiritual belief system not sanctioned by any of the major organized religions. Abuse of children is probably not the ultimate goal, but the vehicle for inducing in adults a quasi-religious state and for creating and maintaining a particular spiritual or social system. The belief system may or may not be "satanic."

Pseudo-ritualistic abuse. The primary goal is the abuse of children. Masks, costumes, visits to graveyards, threats of harm to the children and their families, and the killing of animals may be ways to intimidated children into participating, to prohibit their disclosure of the abuse, and to discredit their accounts if they do tell.

Psychopathological ritualism. Ritualistic acts are part of the obsessive or delusional system of a mentally disturbed individual, rather than the reflection of a developed ideology or of opportunism.

Such allegations might also be false, the result of fantasy or delusion on the part of the alleged victim (sometimes fed by books or television), or of misinterpretation or suggestion by interveners, including parents, police officers, therapists, and others.

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR "RITUAL ABUSE"?

Supervisory Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, MS, of the FBI, with extensive experience consulting on multi-victim, multi-perpetrator child sexual abuse cases, concluded that there is no evidence for a widespread satanic conspiracy perpetrating cult-based ritual abuse (Lanning, 1992). Other reputable nationwide studies support this conclusion (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

Because professionals disagree about what constitutes "ritual abuse," and no mechanisms are in place at the local, state, or national levels to track reports of ritual abuse or to investigate the validity of ritual elements, no reliable data are available about its prevalence. A recent nationwide study has concluded that many allegations of abuse now referred to as "ritualistic" have nothing to do with supernatural beliefs, Satanists, or organized cults (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

In one national research study of sexual abuse in day care (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988), one or more ritual elements were alleged in 13% of cases. The researchers could not determine whether these allegations were true or false, or whether they might pertain to cult-based ritual abuse, pseudo-ritualistic abuse, or psychopathological ritualism.

Much more evidence exists for religion-related abuse (i.e., abuse driven by beliefs associated with non-satanic religions or perpetrated by someone with religious authority) than for "ritual abuse" (Bottoms, Shaver, Goodman, & Qin, in press). Religion-related abuse includes such acts as "beating the devil out of a child," abusive "exorcism" and "deliverance" ceremonies, sexual abuse by clergy, and religiously motivated medical neglect.

WHO IS ALLEGED TO PERPETRATE "RITUAL ABUSE"?

Sexual abuse in which ritual elements are alleged is typically perpetrated by two or more people acting in concert. Whereas most surveys indicate that males are responsible for more than 95 percent of sexual abuse perpetrated against individual children, females comprise 40 percent to 55 percent of alleged perpetrators acting in concert (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988; Faller, 1994).

WHAT DO CHILD ABUSE PROFESSIONALS BELIEVE ABOUT RITUAL ABUSE?

Professionals are divided over whether or not "ritual abuse" occurs. Much of the controversy in the professional community would likely disappear with the introduction of a coherent, widely-accepted definition of "ritual abuse."

No reliable data are available on the prevalence of different beliefs about "ritual abuse" among professionals. However, in a nationwide study of thousands of interdisciplinary professionals, 11 percent of mental health professionals reported having encountered one or more allegations of child abuse that included ritual elements, as defined by the researchers. A very small group of clinicians (1.4 percent), each claiming to have treated scores of cases, accounted for most of the reports of ritualistic child abuse (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

A very high percentage of professionals who encountered reports of ritual abuse from patients believed those reports, based largely on patients' strong affect and apparently abuse-related behavioral symptoms, even though other corroborative evidence was often lacking (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, in press).

WHAT IS THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM RESPONSE TO ALLEGED "RITUAL ABUSE"?

Some studies have found that allegations of sexual abuse involving ritual elements are prosecuted at a lower rate than allegations without such elements (Finkelhor & Williams, 1988). Others have found no significant difference in the rate at which these allegations are prosecuted (Faller, 1994). Ritualistic elements that lack corroboration can discredit otherwise verifiable accounts of abuse, and are often downplayed by prosecutors (Faller, 1994)

True accounts of abuse can include false elements that reflect fantasy on the part of victims, misinterpretation or suggestion by interveners, or deception by perpetrators. One of the most difficult challenges for child abuse professionals today is establishing criteria for distinguishing between true and false elements in accounts of abuse.

SOURCES

Bottoms, B.L., Shaver, P.R., Goodman, G.S., and Qin, J. (in press). In the name of God: A profile of religion-related child abuse. Journal of Social Issues.

Bottoms, B.L., Shaver, P.R., & Goodman, G.S. (in press). An analysis of ritualistic and religion-related child abuse allegations. Law and Human Behavior.

Faller, K.C. (1994). Ritual abuse: A review of the research. The APSAC Advisor, 7, 1, 1, 19-27.

Finkelhor, D. & Williams (1988), L.M.. Nursery crimes: Sexual abuse in day care. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Lanning, K.V. (1992). Investigator's guide to allegations of "ritual" child abuse. Quantico, VA: Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.

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by Alex Constantine

Part III - The Wall

One much maligned school of psychology argues that a preschool operated by a mind control cult specializes in dissociative conditioning, a regimen of physical and psychological beatings that give birth to a cluster of alter personalities. The first stage of conditioning, they maintain, insults the child's most primitive reflexes, a repetition of tortures that overloads the child's neurological complex and forces the adoption of protective alters. Most very young children rapidly learn to dissociate, a learned reflex that the group exploits as the child grows - often into adulthood - by accessing the alters. They can be called up at any time and used in criminal enterprises. Dissociative programming is sort of a psychological hard drive: it occurs when the victim is very young and is the bed of future programming.1

But the study of dissociative conditioning in traumatized preschool children did not reach these conclusions until c1990 (with the work of Dr. Steven Ray, Frank Putnam, Catherine Gould and others) nearly a decade after the first charges of abuse at McMartin were filed. There was narry a hint at the time that the intelligence cults were plying a system for creating multiple personalities and programmed alters. Well before techniques for multiplicity programming were at all known outside the mind control fraternity, a lively debate of cerebral, smartly-groomed psychologists was kindled by the McMartin trial.

An early champion for the defense was the late Dr. Nahman H. Greenberg, a prominent psychiatric consultant on child abuse and neglect. With a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health in 1971, Dr. Greenwood once designed a psychological profile to identify the personality characteristics of abused children. For 20 years, while still an associate professor at the University of Illinois's psychiatry department, he was director of child development in the clinical and research unit. In 1975 he founded CAUSES (Child Abuse Unit for Studies, Education and Services) at Illinois Masonic Hospital. His office glittered with numerous honors from federal and state government agencies.2

Dr. Greenberg was brought in to make sense of the McMartin children's allegations. He studied the questioning techniques of Kee MacFarlane and generally behaved as though he agreed with her findings. But in public pronouncements Greenberg later stated that MacFarlene coerced accusations of abuse from the children, goaded them into making slanderous allegations. The argument, endlessly repeated, has since cast a pall on McFarlane's credibility.3

His subsequent career is revealing. Dr. Greenberg's next ritual abuse case came shortly after his consultation on McMartin.

Beth Vargo joined Believe the Children shortly after witnessing it. In April 1984, Vargo suspected that her four-year-old daughter had been sexually abused at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) preschool in Chicago. Several other children told of molestations. They described "strangers" engaging in sexual escapades at JCC and elsewhere. Staff members of the center even stepped forward to supplement the allegations with their own testimony.

Vargo was referred to Dr. Greenberg by the local Department of Child and Family Services.4 The name rang a bell - Vargo had been warned by the family doctor to steer clear of him, she recalls. Dr. Greenberg did not believe in 'involving' the "police or prosecutors in child abuse cases, but preferred to work with the child victims and adult perpetrators to repair relationships damaged by sexual abuse" she says. "Since our case involved extrafamilial abuse, not incest, my husband and I made other therapy arrangements for our daughter." At a meeting called by JCC to address parents' concerns about the investigation, Vargo says, he recommended that the parents and teachers attend a retreat to "share their feelings." Dr. Greenberg sympathized with the teachers' "stress," and engaged in heated arguments with the therapists treating the children. He refused to believe the JCC's own staff that children had been abused at the preschool, and stood fast in his refusal to cooperate with police.5

The case was a repetition of McMartin. During questioning, two mothers reported that their daughters said their alleged abusers had threatened to kill their families if they talked. The children deposed that they'd been beaten, stuck with needles and screwdrivers. In fact, parents reported unexplained scratches and bruises. The preschoolers also said that teachers at the center organized "naked games." "This will be with us forever," one mother lamented. "It will never be wiped away."6

In 1987, Dr. Greenberg's consultation in another aborted child abuse investigation - into the child pornography operation run by the Finders cult - exposed his unshakable bias in favor of ritual abuse perpetrators, and his role in a CIA cover-up. The Finders, as most cult observers are aware, was a CIA-anchored clutch of ritual abusers engaged in operant mind control conditioning, child pornography and kidnapping. At first, Langley officials acknowledged to custom agents in Tallahassee, Florida that they "owned the Finders."7 Marion David Pettie, who retired from the Air Force in 1956 and defined himself as a "political powerhouse," was the guiding light of the cult. He denied any connection to Langley - yet his late wife was a CIA employee and his son a veteran of Air America, the opiate courier. Confidential sources told police the Finders conducted "brainwashing" sessions and "explored satanism."8 Police in Tallahassee were called off the case after Dr. Greenberg examined the children and found "no evidence of recent physical harm." Nonetheless, two Florida policemen stood by their statement that they'd found visible evidence of sexual abuse. The original arrest file, as one investigating Treasury agent complained in an internal report, was "classified secret and not available for review." Customs service agents in Washington discovered on the group's premises directions for kidnapping children and photographing naked toddlers. Yet the case was quickly guttered, largely due to Dr. Greenberg's militant denials that children had been used by an occult group with an active interest in mind control programming.

Another "expert," a universally-quoted debunker of ritual abuse, hails from the FBI. Agent Ken Lanning of Quantico has provided RA debunkers, namely pedophiles, propagandists and mind control operatives in academia and the press, with an illusory pillar of debate. Fatal flaws in Lanning's "research report," a denial that the cult abuse of children exists, were exposed as a hoax by a law enforcement insider:

I have spoken to Ken Lanning, I know others who have spoken to him and we all take issue with Ken's *opinion* and how this report is being used. It should also be stated that I work within the System in some capacity and have some experience in investigations. I've also been involved on the metaphysical path for a long time. I'm not too excited about "witch hunts" because I'd be the first one put on the stake by a "hysterical," know-nothing public. But neither am I too pleased by what I have been learning about the atrocities that are occurring, the reasons for it, and the artful skewing of perceptions.... Ken Lanning is an armchair analyst and he has *not* personally investigated many cases of RA. Law enforcement and others sometimes *consult* with him about cases and how to proceed. He is not aware of all RA cases. The FBI, Childrens Services, and law enforcement do not keep statistics on ritual crime. No one is keeping track, therefore no one can say with authority how prevalent RA is. The DAs are not bringing evidence of RA into cases unless they really have to because of Freedom of Religion issues and reports like Lanning's.

He has a confusing, difficult time defining RA. He has told others that he prefers to catergorize RA under Sex Rings or Gang Violence. Someone like him cannot deal with or understand metaphysical intent. Few people can. Nor can he officially acknowledge RA because of various Governmental entities which have been implicated. The FBI and has been implicated in at least *botching* some RA case investigations and in some instances *covering up* the evidence. The CIA has been implicated in far worse fashion.... There are many cases of ritual murder and brainwashing. Lanning professes not to know of any.

There is more to this issue than is apparent on the surface. I have understood some of what is going on due to my personal contact with victims, my personal experience with how cover-ups occur, and the sheer time I have put in investigating this phenomenon.

There are mechanisms being put in place to make the RA claims "incredible." Of course, not everything anyone says is true, but there are too many people around the world who are victims of this horror and if there are any responsible people here, it would behoove you to pay attention.9 That's all for now,

Curio II

The science of mind control experimentation in the U.S. has benefited enormously from experiments on young children. The horror stories told by toddlers at McMartin did not arise in a historical vacuum. Comparable outrages, foreshadowing McMartin, filled Lynne Moss-Sharman's childhood as an unconsenting guinea-pig.

I am a survivor of military torture and experimentation as a young child in the 1950's. It is very difficult to 'write' about my experiences because of the military's use of electricity and binding on my right hand to make sure I could or would not communicate through printing, writing or drawing for decades. One of the sessions involved huge amounts of electricity being applied to my right hand; then it was tied to my back, and I was made to walk around on my knees, using my left hand for support, "like a dog." Their other torture techniques and devices took care of the possibility of talking.10

She was "tied, strapped, belted down so I couldn't writhe. That would have been too kind and might have dislodged some of the headgear/electrodes, etc." The military experiments, she recalls, left her "spasmodic" The preschoolers in Manhattan Beach provoked scorn and giggles when they claimed they'd been whisked off to military bases. But numerous examples from classified federal files could confirm that children have been tortured in biomedical and behavior control research since the prime of D. Ewon Cameron. Military bases are a common theme.

One mother of children attending McMartin alleged that employees of TRW, a local defense contractor based in Southern California, paid regular afternoon visits to the preschool.11

And the stake-out? In 1989, nearly a year before the verdict of the second trial was delivered, a McMartin mother took note of a van parked in front of her home. Two strangers sat inside the van. A few hours later, they were still there. When a couple of the mother's husky male friends arrived, she complained. They walked out to the van, peeked inside. The walls of the vehicle were lined with advanced electronic surveillance equipment. The stake-out team was dragged out of the van and questioned - but not by police. More than one child in the household had attended McMartin. A superficial justice system and a hostile media had forced the families to find answers anywhere they could. And these spies with their advanced surveillance gear would do fine.

But they refused to answer questions. One of the interrogators hit on an idea frowned upon by most law enforcement authorities - sodium amytal. The amytal was administered. When the grievous tones and insults faded, the pair gazed up blankly and began to answer questions. Who were they? They were members of a religious cult. Where did they call home? San Diego. Who else was belonged to it? They named several prominent officials in the defense establishment - including the chairman of TRW and executives of other ranking corporations in Orange County and the South Bay with close CIA connections.12 The pair were let go after questioning.

Of course, none of this reached the jury. Lee Coleman, a California psychologist who gave the keynote address at the Second National Conference of VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse Laws) - an organization notorious for recurring scandals among its ranks involving pedophilia - testified that the children had not been abused by teachers at the preschool, but by "officials" (not therapists) who'd "brainwashed" the children into believing they'd been abused.13 Coleman's theory has evolved into a combative branch of psychology based on "false memory" theory. The school describes a "syndrome" and lends its name to an organization led by veterans of the mind control fraternity, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.

The "syndrome" is accepted as fact by the public at large. But at Carleton University, a group of graduate researchers recently concluded a study of the so-called "false memory syndrome," an explanation for recovered memories of child abuse promoted by a "foundation" of psychologists who appear frequently on talk shows to denounce therapists for filling the heads of children with recollections of horrific crimes. One of the most prominent psychologists on the board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was Dr. Ralph Underwager, the clinical psychologist who once said it was "God's will" adults have sex with children, and suggested to a group of British reporters in 1994 that most women who are raped "enjoy the experience."

Equally peculiar is the FMSF advisory board, a clutch of psychologists from leading universities, many with backgrounds in CIA mind control experimentation. The researchers at Carleton concluded they could find no proof that an insidious pathology, the "confabulation" of memories, exists, a charge the FMSF has been making about ritual abuse for years - possibly, some informed onlookers insist, to conceal the participation of CIA psychologists in the torture of young children, a regimen of trauma used to condition the minds of young initiates.

The Ottawa Survivors' Study searched for evidence of the false memory syndrome in 113 adult women who, as children, reported they'd been sexually molested. Four sets of questions concerning symptoms of false memory were drawn up. The women were asked about the type of therapy they received, problems with personal relationships and patterns of stress. A detailed analysis of their responses also sought the presence of pseudomemories, the core of false memory theory.

The study was headed by Connie Kristiansen, a professor of psychology at Carleton who proposed that the university evaluate the statistical claims of the Foundation, which have been widely repeated in the press. The FMSF insists that 25 percent to all recovered memories of child abuse are completely false, in contrast to the results of the Ottawa study.

About half of the subjects remembered abuse. The other half had remembered buried memories of abuse as adults. The responses of the two groups were analyzed, and only two of the 51 women with recovered memories had symptoms that met the false memory criteria, leading the researchers to conclude that the syndrome does not exist as defined by the Foundation, and may not exist at all. They advised that false memory syndrome should not be used in the courtroom to discredit recovered memories of abuse until the validity of false memory theory can be demonstrated.

So it certainly had not been demonstrated at the time Drs. Nahberg and Coleman took the stand to testify on behalf of the defendants in the McMartin case.

NOTES

1 David Neswald & Catherine Gould, "Basic Treatment and Program Neutralization Strategies for Adult MPD Survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse," Treating Abuse Today, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 5.

2 Obituary, Chicago Tribune, June 4, 1991. 3 Correspondence, Beth Vargo, executive director of Believe the Children, Gary, Illinois, to John Boyd, Ph.D., August 28, 1995.

4 Vargo.

5 Ibid

6 Carolyn Lenz, "Parents: Abusive Teachers Still at JCC," Rogers Park Edgewater News, May 23, 1984, p. A-1.

7 U.S. Custom and Treasury Department documents. 8 Witkin, Cary and Martinez, "Through a Glass, Very Darkly," U.S. News & World Report, January 3, 1994, p. 30. Also, Saperstein and Churchville, "Officials Describe 'Cult Rituals' in Child Abuse Case," Washington Post, February 7, 1987.

9 Anonymous, "Re: FBI/Ritual Abuse," alt.pagan WWW newsgroup, March 7, 1996.

10 Lynne Moss-Sharman, "Nancy Drew Meets the Exorcist," MindNet (electronic journal), January 20, 1996.

11 Interviewed August 22, 1988.

12 Interviews with participants.

13 David Hechler, The Battle and the Backlash: The Child Sexual Abuse War, (1988: Lexington, Kentucky), Lexington Books, p. 255.

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1. International Organizations that deal with Ritual Abuse

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Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing

Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse

(© 1997). Believe The Children (Revised July 29, 1997)

http://www.ra-info.org/resources/ra_cases.shtml

Many ritual child abuse cases never are prosecuted due to the disbelief of authorities or the unlikelihood that young, severely traumatized children will be able to withstand cross-examination. A 1993 survey by the American Bar Association's Center on Children and Family Law determined that 26 percent of prosecutors nationwide have handled cases involving "ritualistic or sexual abuse." (Ross, 1994). The ritualistic aspects of the crimes often are not presented in court but are clearly indicated in the victims' accounts.*

Arkansas - West Memphis

Three teenagers were convicted in the cult killings of three 8-year-old boys. Michael Wayne 'Damien" Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, were convicted March 18, 1994, on three counts each of capitol murder. (Chicago Tribune, 1994). A jury recommended the death penalty for Echols and life in prison without pareole for Baldwin. (Sullivan, 1994). A third teenager, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, Jr., 18, was convicted in February 1994, of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. He is serving a prison sentence of life plus 40 years. (Beifuss, 1994)

Misskelley confessed to his role in the killings, telling police the murders were linked to a cult ritual that included the rape and mutilation of victims. (Chicago Tribune, 1993). West Memphis police detective Bryn Ridge testified that elements in the case pointed to the work of a satanic cult. (Sullivan, 1994).

Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore disappeared while riding their bicycles in May 1993. Their nude bodies were found the next day in a drainage ditch. The boys had been bound, raped and beaten. (Chicago Tribune, 1993). One child had been sexually mutilated. One witness testified that one of the defendants drank the victim's blood. (Sullivan, 1994).

During the trial prosecutors presented evidence suggesting that Echols was a satanist. Acquaintances said Echols carried a cat's skull to school, wrote satanic poems, and claimed to worship the devil. (Chicago Tribune, 1993). During his first police interview Echols told Detective Ridge that his favorite author was Anton LaVey, author of The Satanic Bible. (Sullivan, 1994). Mental health records indicate that Echols' parents expressed concern about his possible involvement in "satanism or devil worship" when he was hospitalized in 1992. Just four months prior to the murders a clinician noted: "Damien explained that he obtains his powers by drinking blood of others." (Sullivan, 1994).

One item brought to the attention of police was an underground newsletter published by a cousin of Echols' 16-year-old girlfriend. The 1991 edition of the Secret Order of the Undead or "SOUND" featured a drawing of a winged demon molesting a woman, a list of 13 songs "suitable to accompany any ritualistic murder" and a column instructing children on how to build a homemade land mine. (Perrusquia, 1993).

California - Bakersfield

Alvin and Deborah McCuan, Scott and Brenda Kniffen, and Rodney and Linda Phelps (parents of Deborah McCuan) were indicted in 1982 on charges of sexually molesting children. The alleged victims included their own children, traded between families and used for group sex, as well as children from the Bluebird troop run by Deborah McCuan and the unlicensed day care facility in her home. The McCuans and Kniffens were convicted on all counts in 1983, drawing aggregate prison terms in excess of 1,000 years. The Phelps fled town and disapeared after being charged with 33 counts.

Ritual elements in the case were ignored by authorities at the time. (Newton, 1996).

In August 1996, a judge overturned the child molestation convictions of Alvin and Deborah McCuan and Scott and Brenda Kniffen.** (Northwest Herald, August 14, 1996).

A second intrafamilial child-sex ring was exposed and prosecuted in Bakersfield, with trials continuing into 1985. Five adult defendants were convicted, including: Richard Cox, 47 (14 counts); Ruth Ann Taylor, 31 (14 counts); Anthony Cox, 25 (7 counts); George Cox, 24 (7 counts); and Theresa Cox, 21 (3 counts). Prison terms ranged from 10 to 41 years. (Newton, 1996).

Seven defendants in another Bakersfield child-sex ring were convicted in August 1985, with multiple charges including child molestation and endangerment, assault with a deadly weapon, and production of child pornography. Wayne Forsythe, 28, was convicted on 41 separate counts. Other defendants, each convicted on a minimum of 50 counts, included Forsythe's wife, Colleen Dill Forsythe, 26; Ricky Pitts, 31, and his wife Marcella Pitts, 29; Wayne Dill, 26 (Colleen Forsythe's brother); Grace Dill, 50 (mother of Colleen Forsythe and Wayne Dill); and Gina Miller. Cumulative prison sentences in the case came to 2,100 years. (Newton, 1996).

Leroy George Stowe III was convicted on 16 counts of child molestation and sentenced to 30 years in March 1985. Shortly after his conviction, victims in the case expanded their disclosures to include graphic descriptions of satanic ritual abuse and murders, involving nine more defendants.

In January 1987, Gerardo Gonzales (facing 117 charges) pleaded no contest to one count of molesting a 5-year-old girl, and Rev. Willard Lee Thomas (facing 43 charges) pleaded no contest on two counts, including child endangerment and unlawful sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl. Both defendants were released from jail on the basis of time served, and charges against the remaining defendants were dismissed as part of their plea bargain.

In February 1987, a California appeals court reversed Leroy Stowe's conviction on 12 of 16 felony counts, with the grounds cited as a technical insufficiency in the pleadings.** (Newton, 1996).

California - San Diego County

Robert S. Wilkins, 38, and Lori Elizabeth Bartz, 22, were convicted in July 1987 on 8 counts of sexual abuse involving children from Bartz's unlicensed day-care center. The original list of charges, dating back to 1984, included 92 counts of sex acts forced upon girls aged 10 to 15. The victims described displays of weapons, threats, and occult rituals in which Bartz pretended to channel the voice of Satan, telling the children "This is the devil; do as I say." Both defendants received long prison terms. (Newton, 1996).

California - Santa Rosa

Darryl Ball and Charlotte Thrailkill plea bargained on molestation charges and were sentenced to substantial prison terms. The prosecutor's opening statement referred to the ritual aspect of the crimes, and child victims described satanic ceremonies which includedritual murders.

Colorado - Akron

Philip and Michael Schmidt pleaded guilty to molesting children attending the day care center operated by their grandmother, Hazel Riggs, who was sentenced on a lesser charge. A Denver Post report on the case included ritual allegations by a child victim.

Colorado - Denver

William L. Acree, former heroin addict and operator of a halfway house for juvenile delinquents, was convicted in February 1983, on two counts of prostituting children and one count of sexually assaulting a child. Acree was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 5 years suspended on the condition that he undergo psychiatric counseling for at least 4 years.

The victims were male, ages 10 - 17 years old, who displayed satanic tattoos and described themselves as members of Acree's "coven." (Newton, 1996).

Connecticut - Bridgeport

Kerri Lynn Patavino, 28, a school bus driver, was convicted in August 1996 of statutory rape for seducing a 14-year-old boy who said she engaged him in strange rituals during sex. (Northwest Herald, 1996).

The boy testified that Patavino once cut her arm with a razor blade and forced him to lick her blood. According to police, Patavino sent the boy love letters decorated with occult symbols and signed in her blood. During the trial, Patavino wore a pentagram medallion around her neck. (The News-Times, 1996).

Patavino was sentenced to six years in prison. (Northwest Herald, 1996).

Florida - Dade County

Francisco Fuster, 36, was convicted in 1985 on 14 counts of child abuse and sentenced to a minimum of 165 years in prison. Fuster had previously been convicted of lewd and lascivious assault on a 9-year-old girl and had served four years in prison for homicide. More than 50 children accused Fuster and his wife, Iliana, of abuse that included feces-eating, drugging, pornography, animal killings and anal rape with a crucifix. Fuster's 7-year-old son was treated for gonorrhea of the throat.

Iliana Fuster, a 17-year-old native of Honduras, also claimed to have been battered and sexually abused by Fuster. She confessed to her role in the crimes against the children and testified against her husband. Iliana Fuster received a 10-year sentence. (Hollingsworth, 1986).

Florida - Stuart

James Toward, 58, owner of Glendale Montessori School, pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges and received a 15-year sentence. His office manager, Brenda Williams, 30, was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Children described being threatened with guns and knives, photographed for pornographic purposes, and forced to participate in sadistic rituals. (The Orlando Sentinel, 1989).

Georgia - Hapeville

Walter P. West, Jr., a former juvenile officer, pleaded guilty on June 20, 1994, to 33 counts of sexual abuse. West was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 20 years probation, and ordered never to be alone with children.

Prosecutors said that West engaged in oral and anal sex with as many as 13 children, fondled them, forced them to engage in sex acts with other children, and filmed the assaults. Most of his victims were pre-adolescent children who had problems at school and with the law. The youngest victim named in the indictment was six years old. (The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, 1994).

According to a case overview prepared by a special education teacher who reported the abuse, some of the children said West forced them to engage in bestiality and exposed them to animal killings. Other adults in the community were implicated but no additional arrests were made. (McCullers, 1994).

Illinois - Danville

Robbie Moore, a self-avowed "warlock," was convicted on January 30, 1997, of three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Moore, 28, of Danville, Illinois, was arrested in June 1996 when several children, some as young as 4 years old, complained of being sexually abused after joining an informal witchcraft club led by Moore and Kimberly Harris. Harris, 26, pleaded guilty in October 1996 to fondling a 13-year-old girl and is serving a 7-year prison term.

Sgt. John Howard, a juvenile officer with the Vermilion County Sheriff's Department, said that "there appeared to be a connection" between the sexual abuse and what he called "occult activity." Prosecutors said Moore talked about black magic to both lure and terrorize his victims.

Moore was sentenced to 67 years in prison. (Kelley, 1997 and S.O.A.R., 1997).

Iowa - Edgewood

Michael Joseph Schildmeyer, 22, was convicted on second-degree sexual abuse of a 4-year-old boy and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The child testified that Schildmeyer abused him at the Sunshine Preschool and Day Care Center operated by Schildmeyer's wife. The unlicensed center was shut down by the state after children began disclosing ritualistic acts involving stuffed animal decapitations, animal killings, and bondage with ropes and chains. (Hubert, 1989).

Massachusetts - Malden

Gerald Amirault, 32, was convicted in 1986 of 15 counts of child abuse, including rape and indecent assault, and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison. Nine children who attended the Fells Acre Day Care Center testified that Amirault sexually assaulted them in a "magic room" while dressed as a clown. One child testified that small animals were killed. (Ross, 1986).

His mother, Violet Amirault, 62, owner of the school, and her daughter, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, were given 8- to 20-year sentences.

In August 1995, a judge ordered new trials for Violet Amirault and Cheryl Amirault LeFave.** (Rabinowitz, 1995).

On March 24, 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled against granting new trials for Violet Amirault, Gerald Amirault and Cheryl LeFave. The court determined that any flaws at trial were outweighed by the evidence presented by the prosecution. (The Survivor Activist, 1997).

Massachusetts - Pittsfield

Bernard Baran, Jr., a 19-year-old teacher's aide at a day care center, was convicted of child molestation in January 1985. He was sentenced to life, with parole possible in 15 years. Children testified that he threatened to kill their parents if they disclosed the abuse. (Newton, 1996).

Michigan - Niles

Allan Barkman, co-owner of Small World Preschool, was convicted in April, 1985, of molesting a 5-year-old boy and sentenced to 50 to 75 years in prison. Children told authorities they were driven to barns where Barkman photographed them and tore off the head of a chicken. Children said Barkman's wife, who was not charged, dressed up as a witch. (Ross, 1986). Barkman's conviction was later reversed on appeal.** (Newton, 1996).

Michigan - Sanilac County

On October 20, 1994, Stephen Rogers, 30, and his live-in girlfriend, Trudy O'Connor, 32, were found guilty of first-degree child abuse of a 9-year-old girl. The girl, Roger's daughter, was found in a dark walk-in closet by Sanilac County sheriff's deputies. The child was shackled by her ankle to a urine-soaked bed. Her arms had been tied behind her back with a harness made of socks and safety pins. The only other thing in the closet was a large, frightening Halloween mask, which hung directly over the bed.

Family members said that Rogers and O'Connor believed the child was "possessed." The girl's maternal grandmother reported suspected sexual abuse in 1989 and 1990, after the little girl returned from visiting Rogers. A medical examination confirmed scar tissue. Teachers from the girl's school testified that she appeared malnourished, had bruises, cuts and burns on her body, and often smelled of urine. (Flint Journal, 1994).

Minnesota - Jordan

James John Rud, a 27-year-old garbage collector with two previous sex abuse convictions, agreed to plead guilty and testify against other defendants accused of abusing children in sex orgies, in exchange for a lighter sentence. Rud gave police a 113-page statement in which he graphically described sadistic assaults on children. (Emmerman, 1984).

Children ranging in age from 2 to 17 years old described being molested by their parents, relatives and family friends during ritualistic orgies. The children talked about playing games with adults that culminated in sexual assaults and said they had been drugged with alcohol and pills. Many referred to being photographed nude and of seeing child pornography in Rud's trailer. (Crewdson, 1984).

In addition to Rud, 24 adults were charged with molesting 37 children. (Emmerman, 1984). Two defendants were tried and acquitted when one child witness recanted his accusation of abuse. (Chicago Tribune, 1984). The prosecutor dropped the charges against all other defendants to avoid releasing 126 pages of police notes containing allegations that implicated some of the former defendants in ritualistic child murders. (Ogintz, 1984).

In January 1985, Rud was sentenced to 40 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowable by law. (Chicago Tribune, 1985).

Mississippi - Oxford

Danny Walter Schertz, 48, a self-avowed former satanist, was sentenced to 9 years in prison without parole for selling a 16-year-old girl into prostitution. Schertz pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping by trickery and transporting a minor across state lines for prosecution.

F.B.I. agent Leonardo Floyd of Columbus, Mississippi, said Schertz controlled the girl with stories of his satanic powers and threats of harm to the girl and her family. Schertz forced the girl to have satanic symbols tattooed onto her leg and buttocks and to have body piercings in her private parts without anesthesia. (Kraft, 1996).

Nevada - Carson City

Martha Helen Felix and her nephew, Felix "Paco" Ontiveros, were convicted of crimes against children who were placed in their babysitting service. At a preliminary hearing in 1985, children referred to drinking blood, killing animals, and other rituals. Defendants' photographs of "mummified children" were produced at the hearing. (Ross, 1986).

These convictions were later reversed on appeal.**

New Jersey - Maplewood

Margaret Kelly Michaels, a teacher at the Wee Care Nursery operated by an Episcopal Church was convicted in April 1988 on 115 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 47 years in prison. Nineteen preschool-aged children testified that Michaels sexually abused them and subjected them to rituals involving urine, feces, peanut butter and jelly, bloody tampons and penetration with silverware.

Her conviction was overturned in March 1993 by an appeals court on the grounds that Michaels was denied a fair trial because expert testimony was introduced that should not have been allowed and because child witnesses were allowed to testify via closed-circuit TV.** (Chicago Tribune, 1993).

In December 1994, prosecutors dropped the charges against Michaels in order to spare the children the ordeal of testifying in a second trial. (Chicago Tribune, 1994).

Michaels is suing the prosecutors, seeking $800,000 in attorneys fees. (Chicago Tribune, 1996).

New York - Mount Vernon

Jeannette Martin, 51, was accused of holding children down while they were raped and sodomized at an unlicensed day care center. Martin was convicted on a misdemeanor child endangerment charge in February 1987, and sentenced to one year in jail.

Co-defendant James Watt, 31, was convicted on 11 rape counts, 5 sodomy counts and one count of child endangerment, and sentenced to 55 - 165 years in prison. In January 1992, an appellate court split 3 to 2 in favor of overturning Watts' conviction on the grounds that the dates of the offenses alleged in the indictment were "too vague." ** Two dissenting judges voted to uphold the conviction on 6 counts related to a single victim, but were overruled.

Three female victims were diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases. (New York Times and New York Law Journal).

North Carolina - Edenton

Robert F. Kelly, Jr., co-owner of the Little Rascals Day Care Center, was convicted in 1992 on 99 of 100 counts of sexually abusing children. Kelly was sentenced to 12 consecutive life terms, one for each child who testified against him. (Chicago Tribune, April 23-24, 1992).

Twelve children testified that Kelly sexually molested them, forced them to have sex with other children while being photographed, and engaged in sexual acts in the presence of children. The children described being forced to eat feces, threatened with snakes, penetrated with toys, sticks and other objects, hung from trees and tied in bags, and being present while infants were killed. (Allegood, 1991-1992).

Kelly's conviction was overturned on appeal in 1995.** The court ruled that parents' testimony about children's behavioral symptoms was outside the boundaries of permissible opinion from lay witnesses and that testimony from a victim's father, who had previously been retained as Kelly's defense attorney, should not have been allowed. (Richissin, 1995).

On May 23, 1997, prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against Robert F. Kelly, Jr. and Kathryn Dawn Wilson. Assistant District Attorney Nancy Lamb said the children's parents were reluctant to put them through the ordeal of another trial. (Thompson, 1997). Kelly is awaiting trial on eight new counts of sexual abuse unrelated to the day care case. The eight new indictments charge Kelly with raping, abusing and taking indecent liberties with a 9-year-old girl during the summer of 1987. Kelly is free on bond while awaiting trial. (News & Observer, 1996).

Kathryn Dawn Wilson, 27, former cook at Little Rascals, was sentenced in 1993 to life in prison after being convicted of one charge of first-degree sex offense and four charges of taking indecent liberties with a minor. Four children testified that Wilson touched their genitals, forced them to participate in sexual acts, and had sex with Kelly in front of children. (Allegood, 1993).

Wilson's appeal for a new trial was granted because information about an "irrelevant" theft and Wilson's history of drug abuse was prejudicial and should have been excluded.** (Richissin, 1995).

Kelly's wife, Elizabeth T. "Betsy" Kelly, 38, pleaded no contest on January 21, 1994, to 30 charges of abusing 16 children. She was sentenced to seven years in prison. (Allegood, 1994).

Willard Scott Privott, 45, a former video store owner, pleaded no contest June 16, 1994, to over 30 charges of sexually abusing children at the Little Rascals Day Care Center. Sixteen children said that Privott sexually fondled them, forced them to commit sexual acts with other children, with him and with day care employees, and photographed and videotaped the assaults. (Quillin, 1994). Some children allege Privott dressed as a pirate and took them on a boat where they said he molested them, and that he killed babies and fed them to sharks in a tank.

North Carolina -Smithfield

Patrick Figuered, a former electronics firm executive, was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in 1992, after being convicted of sexually abusing three children in 1988. The children, who were between the ages of 2 and 5 years old when the abuse occurred, testified that Figured and his girlfriend, Sonja Hill, molested them at the unlicensed child care center Hill's mother operated from her home.

The children testified that they were drugged and videotaped during sexual assaults, sodomized with a screwdriver, and forced to participate in satanic rituals in which adults wore capes and masks, lit candles, burned Bibles, and forced children to drink urine and blood. (Soloway, 1992).

Sonja Hill pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting the taking of indecent liberties with children and was sentenced in July 1993, to 10 years in prison. (Eisley, 1993).

North Carolina -Winston-Salem

Ricky Martin Vernon, a former Boy Scout volunteer, pleaded guilty in 1989 to taking indecent liberties with 13 teenaged boys from 1981 - 1988, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Vernon offered to initiate the boys into "The Order of the Circle." In order to learn the ways of "The Circle," they had to participate in religious rituals that included sex acts and a service that mimicked Christian communion. (News & Observer, 1989).

Ohio - Canton

Estella M. Sexton, 47, mother of 12 children, was convicted April 15, 1994, of sexually, physically and psychologically abusing her daughter. The charges relate to abuse that occurred five years ago when the daughter was eight years old. The girl testified that her mother beat her, stripped her and sexually fondled her. An older brother corroborated her story of abuse and described satanic rituals that took place in the home.

Sexton's older daughter, Estella M. "Pixie" Good, 24, pleaded guilty earlier in 1994 to manslaughter in the death of her baby. She told authorities she smothered the baby after her father complained about the baby's crying. (Knox, 1994).

Ohio - Mansfield

Two teenage babysitters at the First Presbyterian Church were convicted of sexually abusing children while the victims' parents attended church services. Lawrence Rohde, 19, was convicted in 1992 on 7 counts of gross sexual imposition and sentenced to 14 years in prison. (Boyd, 1992). Scott Butner, 17, pleaded guilty to 5 counts of rape and received a 5 to 10-year prison sentence. (Trexler, 1992).

As many as 50 children described being sexually abused and taken from the church to wooded areas where they said they were forced to participate in child pornography, infanticide, and mutilation of corpses. Victims' parents demanded that charges be filed against adult church members who allegedly were involved, but only Rohde and Butner were indicted. (Hobbs, 1992).

Oregon -Roseburg

Ed Gallup, Sr., Mary Lou Gallup and their son, Ed "Chip" Gallup, Jr., who together ran three Gallup Christian Day Care Centers, were accused by over a hundred children of sexual molestation and ritual child abuse. Children described animal killings, pornography, and sexual abuse performed by adults wearing robes.

Ed "Chip" Gallup, Jr. was convicted on three charges of child sexual abuse involving two children. Ed Gallup, Sr., a Nazarene minister, was convicted on the testimony of a 5-year-old girl.

In November, 1989, Mary Lou Gallup's conviction was reversed because of a discovery violation.**

Ed Gallup, Sr. and Ed "Chip" Gallup, Jr. are serving life terms.

Tennessee - Memphis

Frances Lucindy Ballard, a teacher's aide at Georgia Hills Early Childhood Center, was convicted in 1987 on one count of aggravated sexual battery and sentenced to five years in prison.

Nineteen children had initially accused her of sexual assault in June 1984, with allegations including satanic rituals, death threats, and animal sacrifice.

In February 1991, Ballard's conviction was overturned on grounds that one of several videotapes depicting police interviews with children had been taped over, and thus erased, before it could be viewed by the defense. Her other complaints, including allegations that the children had been brainwashed, were described by the court as "meritless."** (Newton, 1996).

Texas -Austin

Frances and Daniel Keller, operators of Fran's Day Care Center, were convicted in 1992 of aggravated sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl. The Kellers were sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Three children made allegations of abuse that included references to being buried alive with animals, painting pictures with bones dipped in blood, being shot and resurrected, digging up a body in a cemetary and nailing it together, having giant germs implanted in their bodies, and making pornographic movies at gunpoint. (Gamino, 1992).

Texas - El Paso

Two teachers at the YMCA day-care center were convicted of sexually abusing children in El Paso, Texas. Michelle Noble, 34, was convicted in March 1986 on 18 counts of molestation and sentenced to life plus 311 years in prison. Gayle Stickler Dove, 40, was convicted in October 1986, on 6 counts of child abuse and sentenced to three life terms plus 60 years.

Two boys and five girls described abuse that included sexual assault, child pornography, spankings with a plastic tennis racket, and occult-type ritual activities by adults dressed in robes and monster costumes.

Noble's conviction was overturned in 1987 when an appeals court decided that allowing children to testify on videotape violated the defendant's right to confront her accusers.** Several witnesses withdrew from the case, and without their testimony, Noble was acquitted at her second trial in April 1988.

Gayle Dove was granted a new trial in March 1987, after her conviction had been set aside on appeal due to an allegation of jury misconduct.** At her second trial, she was convicted on a single count of aggravated battery and sentenced to 20 years. In 1989, hersecond conviction was overturned on the grounds that three children should have testified in person, rather than on videotape.** In April 1990, prosecutors declined to try her a third time, citing the reluctance of the victims' parents to put their children through the ordeal of another trial. (Newton, 1996).

Utah - Lehi

Alan B. Hadfield was convicted on seven counts of "sodomizing and sexually molesting" two of his children (Salt Lake Tribune, 1988) in a case in which as many as 40 adults in the community were implicated as perpetrators of satanic ritual abuse (Salt Lake Tribune, 1987). No other charges were filed.

Virginia - Richmond

In 1984 two children, ages 7 and 5, were removed from their home due to allegations that they had been sexually abused by their mother and her boyfriend. The children said they were forced to witness the murder of a 12-year-old girl during a cult ritual. The mutilated body of 12-year-old Jessica Hatch was discovered in a remote area of Hanover County. She had disapeared on February 5, 1984, while walking to her grandmother's house.

Police found candles and occult paraphernalia, but said the children "would freeze up... we couldn't tell whether they were telling the truth or fantasizing." (Ross, 1986). The children were ruled incompetent to testify and the sexual abuse charges were dismissed.

Gary Jay Beattie, 28, a convicted "peeping Tom" and friend of the other two suspects, was arrested for making indecent proposals to a 9-year-old girl and two 13-year-old girls. All three girls knew Jessica Hatch and said that Beattie had also propositioned her. Beattie was acquitted of accosting the 9-year-old, but entered a plea bargain on outstanding sex charges involving the 13-year-old victims. His 5-year prison sentence was suspended.

In 1988 Beattie was arrested again on multiple charges of voyeurism. At his first trial in July 1988, he was sentenced to 60 days and a $500 fine. He received a 3-year prison term in the second trial. A third trial in October 1988 resulted in a mistrial because one of the jurors was related to a police officer who investigated the case. A retrial was held in December 1988, and Beattie was convicted on a misdemeanor charge, with a 12-month jail term suspended.

In September 1991, while still on probation, Beattie was arrested on new voyeurism charges.

No one has ever been charged with murdering Jessica Hatch, but local newspapers referred to Beattie as the "closest thing to a suspect." County authorities cited a "strong possibility" that Jessica Hatch was killed in a satanic ritual. (Times-Dispatch and News Leader, 1988-1991).

Washington - Thurston County

Paul R. Ingram, a sheriff's deputy, confessed in 1988 to sexually abusing two of his daughters in the context of satanic rituals. Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of third-degree rape and was sentenced to 220 years in prison.

Later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming he had been coerced and had confessed while in a "trance-like state" to crimes he never committed. In September 1992, the Washington State Supreme Court rejected Ingram's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. (Wright, 1993).

Washington - Wenatchee

Five adults were convicted and 11 pleaded no contest in a child sex-ring investigation involving 48 child victims.

Selid Holt, 34, was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison; Michael Rose, 26, was convicted on 5 counts of child rape and molestation and sentenced to 23 years; Doris Green, 34, who confessed and then recanted her statement, was convicted at trial and sentenced to 23 years; Randall Reed, 43, pleaded guilty on two counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 80 months; Meredith Town, 37, an ex-convict who pleaded no contest on 62 counts of child rape and 4 counts of indecent liberties, was sentenced to 18 years and 4 months; Cherie Town (Meredith Town's wife), also pleaded nolo contendere and was sentenced to 10 years; Harold and Idella Everett both pleaded guilty to molesting their own children, with Harold sentenced to 23 years and Idella to 4 1/2 years. (Newton, 1996).

Child victims referred to the offenders as "The Circle" and described being sexually assaulted and "swapped" in orgies that allegedly took place at a Pentecostal Church. (Sunde, 1995).

Despite defendants' criticism of the investigation, a review by the U.S. Justice Department found no evidence that defendants' civil rights were violated. (Sex Crimes Digest, 1996).

Canada

Prescott - Ontario

Approximately 50 adults were convicted or pleaded guilty in a child sex ring involving over 100 children.

Children described being abused in a basement by adults wearing masks and sheets. They said they were raped, cut with knives, forced to drink blood, and locked in a "dungeon" with a trap door. (Miller, 1995).

A multi-disciplinary team of social workers, prosecutors and police investigating the case took the code name "Project Jericho" to honor Joshua, a baby witnesses say was killed. (Steed, 1994).

Martensville, Saskatchewan

Travis Sterling, 25, was convicted in February, 1994, on eight charges of sexual and physical abuse of children at his parents' unlicensed day care home. Sterling was sentenced to five years in prison.

Travis Sterling and his parents, Ron and Linda Sterling, were among nine people, including five police officers, arrested on more than 150 child abuse charges. Seven child witnesses testified to abuse that included sexual assault, unlawful confinement and anal intercourse. Weapons, a vibrator and pornographic magazines were found in the Sterling home.

In addition to Travis Sterling, a 22-year-old woman who can not be identified because she was a minor at the time of her offenses, was convicted in 1993 on seven child abuse counts. (Wattie, 1994).

England

Nottingham

Twenty-five children were removed from an extended family and taken into foster care following disclosures of incest and ritual child abuse. In February, 1989, nine adults were sentenced for up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to 53 charges of incest, cruelty and indecent assault. The children described being abused by adults wearing costumes, being forced to eat excrement and drink blood, and witnessing the killing of animals and babies. (Tate, 1991).

The Netherlands

Amsterdam

Rene Osterwalder, 38, and his girlfriend, Agostina Schonenberger, 21, were convicted in February 1994 of illegal weapons charges and attempted child abduction. Schonenberger testified that Osterwalder had planned to abduct children, torture them to death in his apartment, and dump their bodies into an aquarium filled with piranhas.

Because the abductions apparently had not been carried out, Osterwalder was sentenced to only 2 years in prison; Schonenberger was sentenced to 6 months. However, they were ordered to serve their sentences in Switzerland, where they face more serious charges of child torture and sexual abuse.

Police found the following evidence in a search of the couple's residences:

: * Six videotapes showing Osterwalder abusing three children ranging in age from 6 months to 12 years old. The children were given electric shocks, held under water and resuscitated, and abused with feces and needles;

* Two tanks of hydrochloric acid in Switzerland and an aquarium with piranhas in Amsterdam. (Osterwalder owned two homes in Amsterdam; one was a former satanic church);

* A fully equipped torture chamber in Switzerland;

* Gynecological equipment, including a culposcope, speculum and extractor;

* Professional video equipment;

* An Uzi rifle with laser visor, hundreds of bullets, two wristweapons and a shooting pen; and

* Luggage with air openings, hand cuffs, and gags.

Osterwalder admitted he was a pedophile but insisted he had no plan to kidnap children. (Jonker, 1993 and Newton, 1996)

New Zealand

Christchurch

Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis, 35, a former day care employee, was convicted June 5, 1993, on 16 counts of sexual abuse relating to seven children. Ellis was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Children who attended Christchurch Civic Creche described bizarre sexual abuse with references to frightening rituals. The children allege they were removed from the day care facility and transported to other locations, including a cemetary and a Masonic lodge, where they were abused by adults dressed in black and white and wearing masks. In addition to their reports of being used for pornographic purposes, the children described being abused within a circle; chanting and participating in mock marriages; being tied up and confined in cages and boxes buried beneath the ground; being penetrated with needles and sticks; witnessing the torture and killing of animals; being drugged; being forced to hurt other children; having blood poured over their heads; and consuming what they believed was human flesh.

Other Evidence

In addition to convictions other evidence has surfaced verifying the existence of ritual abuse of children. Several case examples are given below:

New Hampshire

On March 1, 1991, FBI agents arrested three men suspected of running a major child pornography ring. The three men charged were Wayne H. Bailey, 56, of Fairhaven, RI, an audio technician for a Providence, RI television station; Brian K. Schultz, 44, a Barrington, NH man who allegedly reproduced child pornography under the name "New England Video Exchange"; and Mark Colen, 44, from Brooklyn, CT, who headed a company that reproduced and distributed alleged pornographic films.

Law enforcement officials said videotapes recovered in searches of the men's homes and businesses depicted pregnant women being tortured, children being molested by adults, young women engaged in sexual activities with animals, children urinating on each other and ingesting human feces, and various bizarre sex acts with "satanic" overtones. Some of the children were as young as six years old. (Ford, 1991 and Gaines, 1991).

District of Columbia

A police raid of a home and warehouse connected to the commune known as "The Finders" resulted in the seizure of "several bags of evidence reportedly containing photographs, computer records and other documents." (Cawley, 1987). A customs agent investigating the case noted that the documents "revealed detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes." (Tamarkin, 1994).

The customs agent's report listed the following evidence:

"One telex specifically ordered the purchase of two children in Hong Kong. Other files referred to The Finders activities and members in foreign countries. And there was a large amount of data collected on various childcare organizations."

"In one area of the warehouse, according to the investigator's report, there appeared to be an altar. Jars of urine and feces were located nearby. The search warrants also turned up nude photos of children with their genital areas accented and 'on display.' An album cotained a series of photos of adults and children dressed in white sheets and participating in the execution, disembowelment, skinning and dismemberment of goats. One photo showed the testes of a male goat being removed. Another showed a crying child looking at a decapitated goat. In fact, the goat's head and goat skins were removed by Virginia state police during a search of a farm belonging to The Finders group." (Tamarkin, 1994).

Despite the urgings of the customs agent and several U.S. Representatives, The Finders case was dropped "like a hot rock." (Wilkin, 1993).

Belgium

Authorities are investigating a possible link between Belgium's child sex and murder scandal and a self-styled Satanic Order of Abrasax. Police seized 500 video cassettes believed to show hard-core child pornography, computer discs, two human skulls and jars of animal blood. (Sunday Express, 1997 and Sunday Times, 1996)

Finland

Police in Finland discovered a "massive computer library of child pornography that included pictures of torture, mutilation, and cannibalism." The owner of the child pornography was not arrested because distributing hard-core child pornography is a minor offense in Finland. (World, 1996.)

References

Allegood, J. (1991). "Abuse trial opens." The News & Observer, August 20.

"Child, 5, alleges more abuse at trial." The News & Observer, August 27.

"Mother says son told her of satanic chants at center." The News & Observer, Sept. 11.

Allegood, J. (1993). "Jurors convict Rascals cook." The News & Observer, Jan. 27.

Allegood, J. (1994). "No contest plea in Little Rascals child-sex case." The News & Observer, January 22.

"Arkansas teen faces death sentence in murder of 3 boys." Chicago Tribune, March 20, 1994.

Beifuss, J. (1994). "Misskelley guilty in boys' slayings." The Commercial Appeal, February 5.

Boyd, B. (1992). "Rohde guilty on 7 counts." News Journal, March 18.

Cawley, Janet. (1987) "2 cult children show signs of sex abuse," Chicago Tribune, February 9.

"Child abuser gets 12 life sentences." (1992). Chicago Tribune, April 24.

"Child Exploitation," World (USA Today), September 7, 1996, p. 10.

"Child molester gets 40 years in Minnesota case." (1985), Chicago Tribune, January 19.

Crewdson, J., Emmerman, L. and Ogintz, E. (1984) "Sexual abuse case continues to haunt town in Minnesota." Chicago Tribune, December 16.

"Dad says girl was chained to restrict her self-abuse." Flint Journal, March 21, 1994.

"Day-care owner guilty on 99 child abuse counts." (1992). Chicago Tribune. April 23.

"Discovery of bound girl confirms many suspicions." Flint Journal, February 19, 1994.

Eisley, M. (1993). "Woman loses gamble in sex abuse plea bargain." The News & Observer, July 6.

Emmerman, L. (1984). "Charges of child sex-abuse ring rock town." Chicago Tribune, August 27.

Emmerman, L. (1984). "Witness recants sex-ring story." Chicago Tribune.

"Fells Acre Day-Care: Amiraults May Return to Prison." The Survivor Activist (14), Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring, 1997.

Ford, Beverly. (1991). "Parents eye porn-ring link." The Boston Herald, March 11.

Ford, Beverly. (1991). "Cape parents want porn case reopened." The Boston Herald, March 18.

"Former Critic Reverses, Says 'The System Worked,'" Sex Crimes Digest, 1996.

Gaines, Judith. (1991). "Three Men Charged With Running N.E. Child Pornography Ring." The Boston Globe, March 2.

Gamino, D. and P. Ward. (1992). "Garden of horror." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec. 20.

Hobbs, M.A. (1992). "Tales of satanism divide Mansfield." The Plain Dealer, November 29.

Hollingsworth, J. (1986). Unspeakable Acts. Chicago: Congden and Weed.

Hubert, C. (1989). "Day-care abuse stuns Iowa town." Daily Herald, December 4.

Jonker, F. and Jonker-Bakker, P. (1993). "Actuality in the Netherlands," European Network for Backlash Research Newsletter Number 2, December.

"Judge orders couple to trial on charges of child abuse." Flint Journal, 1994.

Kelley, M. "Ritual child-abuse allegations draw attention to Danville case." The Associated Press, January 27, 1997.

Knox, D. (1994). "Sexton mother guilty of abuse." Akron Beacon Journal, April 15.

Kraft, B. P.. (1996). "Ex-Satanist to Serve 9 Years on Sex Charges." Clarion-Ledger.

"Little Rascals case reopened." (1996). The News & Observer, April 30.

"Man convicted of luring boys to sex rituals." (1989). The News & Observer, August 27.

McCullers, L.C. (1994). "Case overview." July 14.

Miller, J. (1995). "Walls came a' tumbling." Winnipeg Free Press, April 3.

"Molestation case," Northwest Herald, August 14, 1996.

"Murder suspect linked to Satanism." Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1993.

"Murders of 8-year-olds reportedly a cult ritual." Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1993.

New York Law Journal. (1992). January 16.

New York Times. ( 1985 - 1987).

News Leader, May, 1988 - September 1991.

Newton, M. (1996) Guilty As Charged. Presentation at the International Council on Cultism and Ritual Trauma Conference, April 12-14, Dallas, Texas.

"No contest plea in Little Rascals child-sex case." (1994). The News & Observer, Jan. 22.

Ogintz, E. (1984). "Dropping of sex cases investigated," Chicago Tribune, October 17.

"Pair guilty of abuse in chaining girl to bed." Flint Journal, October 21, 1994.

"Parole denied for Little Rascals co-owner." (1994). The News & Observer, April 16.

Perrusquia, M. and B. Sullivan. (1993). "Occult publications draw scrutiny in triple slayings." The Commercial Appeal, September 29.

"Prosecutors sued." (1996), Chicago Tribune, June 16.

Quillin, M. (1994). "Little Rascals defendant pleads no contest, will go free." The News & Observer, June 17.

Richissin, Todd. (1995). "Rascals convictions overturned." The News & Observer, May 3.

Ross, A.S. (1994). "Blame it on the Devil." Redbook, June, 86-89, 110, 114, 116.

Ross, A.S. (1986). "Sensational cases across the country." San Francisco Examiner, September 29.

Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 1988.

Salt Lake Tribune, December 16, 1987.

"Satanic Link Feared in the search for young victims." Sunday Express, January 12, 1997.

"Satanic Links to Belgian Murder Trail." Sunday Times, December 29, 1996.

"Sentencing ends child abuse ordeal." (1994). The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution, June 21.

S.O.A.R. Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 6, May/June, 1997.

Soloway, C. (1992). "Raleigh man sentenced to 3 life terms for abuse." The News & Observer, October.

"Son comes to parents' defense in child-sex trial." (1984), Chicago Tribune.

Steed, J. (1994). Our Little Secret: Comfronting Child Sexual Abuse in Canada. Toronto: Random House.

Sullivan, B. (1994). "Prosecutors seek to link occult in 3 boys' deaths." The Commercial Appeal, March 8.

Sullivan, B. (1994). "Witness: Baldwin said he tasted boy's blood." The Commercial Appeal, February 5.

Sullivan, B. (1994). "Echols gets death; Baldwin spared." The Commercial Appeal, March 20.

Tamarkin, Civia (1994). "Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part II." Treating Abuse Today, 4(5), 5-9.

Tate, T. (1991). Children for the Devil: Ritual Abuse and Satanic Crime. London: Methuen.

"Teacher's molestation conviction overturned." (1993), Chicago Tribune, March 27.

Thompson, E. "Charges dropped in massive sex case." The Associated Press, May 24, 1997.

Times-Dispatch, May 1988 - September 1991.

Trexler, P. (1992). "Butner pleads guilty." News Journal, February 21.

"2 teens convicted in slayings of 3 Arkansas boys." Chicago Tribune, March 19, 1994.

"21 to tell of abuse at school." (1989). The Orlando Sentinel, April 5.

Wattie, C. (1994). "Child-abuser gets bail in Martensville case." The Gazette (Montreal), February 10.

"Witch charged with sexually assaulting boy." The News-Times, August 2, 1996.

"Witch trial." Northwest Herald, August 22, 1996 and October 13, 1996.

Witkin, Gordon and Peter Cary. (1993). "Through a glass, very darkly." U.S. News & World Report, December 27.

Wright, L. (1993). "Remembering Satan." The New Yorker.

* Because ritual abuse allegations often are not disclosed in courtroom proceedings, this list represents only a portion of convictions where ritual child abuse is a factor.

** A conviction is overturned on appeal when the appellate court finds that the defendant was denied a fair trial due to a legal error. Granting an appeal for a new trial does not constitute a ruling that the crime for which the defendant was originally tried could not have been committed.

To make a comment or suggestion, write rahome@ra-info.org

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Effective January 1, 1993

Ritualized Abuse of a Child - Exclusions - Penalties - Definition

Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Illinois:

(a) A person is guilty of a felony when he commits any of the following acts with, upon, or in the presence of a child as part of a ceremony, rite, or similar observance.

(1) actually or i simulation, tortures, mutilates or sacrifices any warm-blooded animal or human being;

(2) forces ingestion, injection or other application of any narcotic drug, hallucinogen or anesthetic for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, recollection of, or resistance to any criminal activity;

(3) forces ingestion or external application of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, bones.

(4) involves teh child in the mock, unauthorized or unlawful marriage ceremony with another person or representation of any force or deity, followed by sexual contact with the child.

(5) places a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains;

(6) threatens death or serious harm to a child, his or her parents, family, pets, or friends which instills a well-founded fear in the child that the threat will be carried out; or

(7) unlawfully dissects, mutilates or incinerates a human corpse.

(b) The provisions of this Section shall not be construed to apply to:

(1) Lawful agricultural, animal husbandry, food preparation, or wild game hunting and fishing practices and specifically the branding or identification of livestock.

(2) The lawful medical practice of circumcision or any ceremony related to circumcision; or

(3) any state or federally approved, licensed, or funded research project.

(c) Ritualized abuse of a child is a Class 1 felony for a first offense.   A second or subsequent conviction for ritualized abuse of a child is a Class X felony for which the offender may be sentenced to a term of natural life imprisonment.

(d) For the purpose of this Section, 'child' means any person under 18 years of age.

In addition, the Illinois statute allows "testimony by an expert, qualified by the court relating to any recognized and accepted form of post-traumatic stress syndrome shall be admissible as evidence".

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Female genital mutilation

State of Illinois

Public Acts - 90th General Assembly

Public Act 90-0088

http://www.legis.state.il.us/publicacts/pubact90/acts/90-0088.html

HB0106 Enrolled LRB9000925RCsb

AN ACT to amend the Criminal Code of 1961 by changing Sections 12-32 and 12-33 and adding Section 12-34.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Criminal Code of 1961 is amended by changing Sections 12-32 and 12-33 and adding Section 12-34 as follows:

(720 ILCS 5/12-32) (from Ch. 38, par. 12-32)

Sec. 12-32. Ritual Mutilation.

(a) A person commits the offense of ritual mutilation, when he or she mutilates, dismembers or tortures another person as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance or practice, and the victim did not consent or under such circumstances that the defendant knew or should have known that the victim was unable to render effective consent.

(b) Sentence. Ritual mutilation is a Class 2 felony.

(c) The offense ritual mutilation does not include the practice of male circumcision or a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, or performance related thereto.

(Source: P.A. 86-864; 86-1028.)

(720 ILCS 5/12-33) (from Ch. 38, par. 12-33)

Sec. 12-33. Ritualized abuse of a child.

(a) A person is guilty of ritualized abuse of a child when he or she commits any of the following acts with, upon, or in the presence of a child as part of a ceremony, rite or any similar observance:

(1) actually or in simulation, tortures, mutilates, or sacrifices any warm-blooded animal or human being;

(2) forces ingestion, injection or other application of any narcotic, drug, hallucinogen or anaesthetic for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, recollection of, or resistance to any criminal activity;

(3) forces ingestion, or external application, of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, bones, body secretions, nonprescribed drugs or chemical compounds;

(4) involves the child in a mock, unauthorized or unlawful marriage ceremony with another person or representation of any force or deity, followed by sexual contact with the child;

(5) places a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains;

(6) threatens death or serious harm to a child, his or her parents, family, pets, or friends that instills a well-founded fear in the child that the threat will be carried out; or

(7) unlawfully dissects, mutilates, or incinerates a human corpse.

(b) The provisions of this Section shall not be construed to apply to:

(1) lawful agricultural, animal husbandry, food preparation, or wild game hunting and fishing practices and specifically the branding or identification of livestock;

(2) the lawful medical practice of male circumcision or any ceremony related to male circumcision;

(3) any state or federally approved, licensed, or funded research project; or

(4) the ingestion of animal flesh or blood in the performance of a religious service or ceremony.

(c) Ritualized abuse of a child is a Class 1 felony for a first offense. A second or subsequent conviction for ritualized abuse of a child is a Class X felony for which the offender may be sentenced to a term of natural life imprisonment.

(d) For the purposes of this Section, "child" means any person under 18 years of age.

(Source: P.A. 87-1167.)

(720 ILCS 5/12-34 new)

Sec. 12-34. Female genital mutilation.

(a) Except as otherwise permitted in subsection (b), whoever knowingly circumcises, excises, or infibulates, in whole or in part, the labia majora, labia minora, or clitoris of another commits the offense of female genital mutilation. Consent to the procedure by a minor on whom it is performed or by the minor's parent or guardian is not a defense to a violation of this Section.

(b) A surgical procedure is not a violation of subsection (a) if the procedure:

(1) is necessary to the health of the person on whom it is performed and is performed by a physician licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches; or

(2) is performed on a person who is in labor or who has just given birth and is performed for medical purposes connected with that labor or birth by a physician licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches.

(c) Sentence. Female genital mutilation is a Class X felony.

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TITLE 18

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER 15

CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS

18-1506A. RITUALIZED ABUSE OF A CHILD -- EXCLUSIONS -- PENALTIES --

DEFINITION.

(1) A person is guilty of a felony when he commits any of the following acts with, upon, or in the presence of a child as part of a ceremony, rite or any similar observance:

(a) Actually or in simulation, tortures, mutilates or sacrifices any warm-blooded animal or human being;

(b) Forces ingestion, injection or other application of any narcotic, drug, hallucinogen or anaesthetic for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, recollection of, or resistance to any criminal activity;

(c) Forces ingestion, or external application, of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, bones, body secretions, nonprescribed drugs or chemical compounds;

(d) Involves the child in a mock, unauthorized or unlawful marriage ceremony with another person or representation of any force or diety, followed by sexual contact with the child;

(e) Places a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains;

(f) Threatens death or serious harm to a child, his parents, family, pets or friends which instills a well-founded fear in the child that the threat will be carried out; or

(g) Unlawfully dissects, mutilates, or incinerates a human corpse.

(2) The provisions of this section shall not be construed to apply to:

(a) Lawful agricultural, animal husbandry, food preparation or wild game hunting and fishing practices and specifically the branding or identification of livestock;

(b) The lawful medical practice of circumcision or any ceremony related thereto; or

(c) Any state or federally approved, licensed or funded research project.

(3) The penalty upon conviction of a first offense shall be imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not to exceed fifteen (15) years. Upon conviction of a second or subsequent offense, the penalty shall be for a term not more than life imprisonment.

(4) For the purposes of this section, "child" means any person under eighteen (18) years of age.

The Idaho Code is made available on the Internet by the Idaho Legislature as a public service. This Internet version of the Idaho Code may not be used for commercial purposes, nor may this database be published or repackaged for commercial sale without express written permission.

Search the Idaho Statutes

Available Reference: Search Instructions.

The Idaho Code is the property of the state of Idaho, and is copyrighted by Idaho law, I.C. § 9-350. According to Idaho law, any person who reproduces or distributes the Idaho Code for commercial purposes in violation of the provisions of this statute shall be deemed to be an infringer of the state of Idaho's copyright.

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American Humane Calls for Citizen Action to Stop Animal Abuse;

Urges Prosecution

DENVER, Sept. 25, 2002 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the horrific abuse case of a young coon-hound mix, now being called Trooper, the American Humane Association today called on authorities in Ohio to take animal cruelty seriously and urged residents to report animal abuse. American Humane, the only national organization dedicated to both child and animal protection, made this call in light of growing research indicating that adults and children who are violent to animals have the capacity to also be violent to humans -- a correlation commonly referred to as the Link.

As reported in the Dayton Daily News, the puppy suffered third-degree burns deep into muscle tissue all over his body after someone viciously attacked the dog with what it believed to be a blow torch. The puppy, which has been named Trooper by Town and Country Veterinary Clinic and the Preble County Humane Society, is expected to recover after weeks of intensive care. A milestone was reached today when the young pup lay down to sleep for the first time.

"Trooper continues to amaze his caretakers by how affectionate and trusting he is despite the horrible betrayal he so recently experienced," said Jodi Buckman, American Humane's director of shelter services. "Knowing that this little dog still trusts people shows his remarkable loving spirit. Our hope is that this crime will spur Ohio into adopting a felony animal cruelty law."

In the event that the perpetrator is found guilty, American Humane recommends the sentence include psychological evaluation, followed by professional counseling and, if age appropriate, incarceration with rehabilitation. Authorities are also asked to immediately take any remaining animals into protective custody and prohibit the abuser from owning or harboring animals in the future.

Historically, animal and child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse have been treated as unrelated events. However, research continues to emerge indicating premeditated torture or killing of animals often occurs in conjunction with, or as a precursor to, other types of violent behavior, such as child abuse, domestic violence, gang activity, and even satanic ritual. The evidence is so overwhelming (see attached fact sheet) that 36 states and the District of Columbia currently have felony level convictions for serious acts of animal abuse. Ohio is not one of these states.

"We're not saying everyone who abuses animals will become a serial killer, but animal abuse is a warning that action is needed to stop the cycle of increasing violence," continued Buckman. "Animal abuse must be reported to local authorities. Perpetrators must be held accountable for their actions and treatment delivered. Not only do we owe it to the animals, we owe it to our community."

American Humane urges residents of Preble County to politely urge district attorney Rebecca Ferguson (937 456-8156) to actively prosecute the person responsible for this crime.

Founded in 1877, American Humane is the nation's only national organization dedicated to both child and animal protection. From its headquarters outside Denver, Colorado, and from regional offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, American Humane provides national leadership in the development of programs, policies, and services on behalf of children and animals who are abused and neglected. For more information on what to do if you suspect animal abuse, please visit www.americanhumane.org .

http://tbutton.prnewswire.com/prn/11690X83354673

SOURCE American Humane Association

CO: American Humane Association

ST: Colorado, Ohio

SU: NPT LAW

http://www.prnewswire.com

09/25/2002 19:33 EDT

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Last Updated:  01/30/2007

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